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Heathsville Northumberland Co Va
March 28th 1866.

Asst Commr
Bur. of R.F.& AL.
Richmond Va

Sir
In obedience to instructions contained in Circular No 6. Office of Supt. 10th Va Dist. I have the honor to report. That the Freedmen in the Counties of Northumberland & Lancaster Va. are generally at work on farms, which they are cultivating on shares of from one third to one half, of the crops raised, some few are working by the day or month, but in the most of cases, I have discouraged them from doing so, believing it to be more to their advantage and to that of the whites, that they should make their contracts, for the year, 1866.

There are none, that I can learn, that are suffering for the want of Provisions, as yet, but the probabilities are, that the supplies received by them for their last years services, will be exhausted before this years crops are fit for use, in which case, many of them must suffer, unless their necessities are provided for, from some source outside of the District.

A report, very injurious in its tendancy, has been circulated and to some extent believed, by both Whites and Freedmen, that the veto of the "Freedmans Bureau bill" carries with it the immediate abolition, of the business of the Bureau in the State. Also, that slavery was to be reestablised. These events are no doubt ardently desired by a large part of the Whites and the belief that they were possible.